Hanoi plans to remove or cut down around 500 trees for the construction of an urban railway project.

On August 16, Hanoi Urban Railway Management Board, investor in the metro project linking Nhon area in Nam Tu Liem District with Hanoi Station in Dong Da District started removing 106 trees on Kim Ma Street, including many perennial trees.

The tree removal on Kim Ma Street

The investor has worked with the Hanoi Department of Construction on the tree removal within 90 days. The trees which still develop normally will be dug manually to ensure their roots are intact before moving to gardens in the northern province of Hung Yen to be taken care of. The trees will be later considered for being replanted in Hanoi.

However, digging trees manually costs much time. For instance, an one-metre diameter tree requires 30 people. The tree removal will be mainly carried out in the evening to mitigate the impact on traffic.

To implement the entire Nhon-Hanoi Station urban railway project, as many as 500 trees in many Hanoi streets would be removed or cut down. According to the investor's initial survey, around 400 could be removed to gardens outside Hanoi for being taken care of, while the rest which are damaged seriously could be felled.

The tree removal on Kim Ma Street will be seen as the pilot work for the whole project's tree settlement.

Construction on the 12-km Nhon-Hanoi Station urban railway was started in September 2010. The project, with a cost estimate of 780 million Euro (USD1.14 billion) funded by France and the Asian Development Bank, is slated for completion in 2018.